Phenomenological Transparency through Depth of “Inside/Outside” for a Sustainable Architectural Environment

Abstract

The potential relationship between external and internal spaces in the architectural environment of the post-pandemic era is emerging as an essential issue. Since the early 20th century, the issue of transparency inside and outside architecture has been explored in various fields. This study is motivated by the lack of a leading theory about architectural transparency in the post-pandemic era. First, it revisits the notion of phenomenal transparency in Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky’s influential text on “literal” and “phenomenal” transparency. Next, it investigates Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology for architectural transparency. Last, it scrutinizes practical possibilities using cases from Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates (SAANA). It finds that intertwining the cognition of natural environment and spatial experiential perceptions can create phenomenological architectural experiences. Sustainable architectural transparency may be accomplished when three factors (the visual perception of space, spatial experiential perceptions, and the cognition of natural environment) are incorporated. Further, depth functions as a medium for architectural transparency, intertwining between material and immaterial, literal and phenomenal, and visible and invisible. There is tremendous potential to conduct pilot studies based on this study, to re-evaluate architectural transparency with phenomenological ideas.